Seven Severed Heads Found on Highway Near Guadalajara, Mexico’s Second-Biggest City

Heads stuffed in plastic bags discovered outside Guadalajara, site of horrific turf battle between warring drug cartels. Two teens found murdered earlier this week.

	Guadalajar, Mexico 

Guadalajara, in western Mexico, has been overrun by drug war violence including beheadings and the assassination of a government official.    Google

Seven severed heads were found along a highway outside  Guadalajara, further gruesome evidence that drug wars in Mexico’s second-biggest city are spiraling out of control.

The heads, stuffed into plastic bags, were discovered on the edge of a highway in Jalisco state, authorities said Wednesday.

Investigators surround corpse of Jalisco state's new tourism minister, Jose de Jesus Gallegos, who was gunned down in a wealthy Guadalajara enclave in March.

Investigators surround corpse of Jalisco state’s new tourism minister, Jose de Jesus Gallegos, who was gunned down in a wealthy Guadalajara enclave in March.    STRINGER / Reuters

On Tuesday, the bodies of two 15-year-old boys were found in a forest outside Guadalajara. Luis Ortiz and Andres Barba had allegedly bullied the son of drug kingpin Jose Angel Carrasco aka “El Changel” and “The Zero Five.”

The narcotics lord was arrested in January after a firefight with the army. He was a key leader in the brutal Sinaloa Cartel, which is at war with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion and Los Caballeros Templarios over multimillion-dollar smuggling routes and incredibly lucrative meth production sites in and around Guadalajara.

Human heads were found stuffed inside plastic bags near Guadalajara, the site of deadly turf battles between Mexican drug cartels.

Human heads were found stuffed inside plastic bags near Guadalajara, the site of deadly turf battles between Mexican drug cartels.     Adina Tovy/Getty Images

Despite assurances from the Mexican government that murder rates are dropping, homicides in Jalisco state increased more than 5 percent during the first five months of 2013, compared with the same period in 2012, according to police.

In March, Jalisco Tourism Minister Jose de Jesus Gallegos was shot dead in an ambush in an upscale Guadalajara neighborhood, just a week after taking office.

State police have not issued a motive for his murder.